Drum-type windrowing machine

ABSTRACT

A windrower has a transverse support positioned at an angle to the travel direction of the apparatus and attached by a towing bar to a tractor and the like. The transverse support is provided with a plurality of crop-transfer drums, which are attached rotatably under the transverse support parallel to each other, and displaced from each other. At least one crop-transfer drum is swingable about its adjacent crop-transfer drum 180° with respect to the axis of the adjacent crop-transfer drum in such a way that its axis retains its angle to the ground. Thus the crop-transfer drums have at least two configurations, in one of which all the crop-transfer drums are side-by-side with an equal spacing between adjacent drums of a width which is much smaller than the width of a crop-transfer drum, and in another in which there is at least one comparatively large gap between two adjacent crop-transfer drums substantially equal in width to the diameter of the crop-transfer drum.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 713,520 of Mar.19, 1985 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,162.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

My present invention relates to a drum-type windrower as an attachmentor implement for a tractor or the like and, more particularly, to amachine which can produce a plurality of swaths or windrows parallel toeach other from a previously mown crop such as hay or straw forsubsequent pickup and/or baling.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Rotary moving and tedding or windrowing machines can have a transversesupport attached by a towing bar to a tractor and oriented at an angleto the travel direction and a plurality of mowing drums, parallel to oneanother under the transverse support and rotatable on it. They areoffset from one another in the travel direction and their working zonesoverlap.

Such implements are used particularly in hay harvesting, wherein thedried hay or crop must be formed in a swath. With the windrowing drumsdriven in the same rotational direction on a bar inclined with respcctto the travel direction, the dried hay or crop is conveyed along theentire width of the side-by-side mowing drums and form a swath orwindrow beside the final moving drum. This kind of comparatively largeswath or windrow can be picked up subsequently by a transport vehicle,e.g. a chopper, blower or baler.

The advantage of a rotary drum windrowing attachment as opposed to a hayharvesting machine with raking wheels is that the once cut hay or cropis carefully handled, because of the elastic structure of the mowingdrum, which, for example, can comprise rubber members, and also becauseof the lack of metal teeth which can be broken off and can damage thesubsequent further processing machines and which can ultimately reachthe cattle or other animals.

In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,269,019 and 4,030,275 the structure of such mowingdrums is described.

These mowing drums generally comprise a cylindrical portion attachedabove an outwardly flared skirt which has a plurality of cutting blades.The drums rotate about a central shaft attached to a generally circularslide disk or convex plate positioned below the flared skirt with thecutting blades so as to keep the blades from the ground. Both theseabove-mentioned prior art patents describe inventive structuresapplicable to a single mowing drum which assist the mower in properlyforming a swath or windrow. U.S. Pat. No. 4,269,019 describes aplurality of tines which are attachable horizontally to the cylindricalportion of a mowing drum to help ted the crop. U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,275describes a flap or deflection plate attached adjacent the mowing drumto help form a proper swath or windrow and an improved flared skirthaving a plurality of ridges which pass adjacent the lower edge of thedeflection plate, wherein the ridges form an acute angle with thedeflection plate when viewed from above down the rotation axis of themowing drums. The ridge structure assists in preventing troublesomeclogging of crop or hay between the deflector plate and the flaredskirt.

A hay or crop harvesting machine with a pair of raking wheels, which aresupported by means of rollers movable on the ground, these wheels beingmounted at the ends of a cross bar arm swingable in a horizontal planeand driven about vertically oriented axes, is taught in Swiss Pat. No.499 254.

In this hay harvesting machine a first raking wheel is fixed withrespect to the travel path of the hay harvesting machine, while a secondraking wheel is shiftable from one side of the first raking wheel to theother side of the first raking wheel by means of a cross bar arm and oneach side the second raking wheel is securable in position. So when thesecond raking wheel is pivoted to the first side position, each rakingwheel works independently, that is, it can form at low rotary speed twoswaths or bundles or at high rotary speed it turns over the product,while, when the second raking wheels is swung out to the second sideposition both raking wheels cooperate, so that the crop or hay cuttingsare directed from the first raking wheel to the second, whereby a singlecorrespondingly larger swath is formed.

For the shifting of the second raking wheels, however, the entiretransverse support, to which both raking wheels are associated, must bepivoted about its pivot axis in a horizontal plane behind the tractor.

Dispensing with metallic teeth, which have several inherentdisadvantages, in these known hay harvesting machines, the raking wheelsare movable each by a supporting roller on the ground, which with an armare pivotally supported on a bracket, wherein the rear raking wheel mustbe provided with an additional trailer roller or caster, which isattached with an attachment member to the bracket. In pivoting of thearm with both raking wheels attached to it, in order that the supportingrollers of the rear raking wheel be put in the new working positionparallel to the longitudinal travel axis, the position locking mechanismof the positioning segments of the rear raking wheels on the cross bararm must be correspondingly changed.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

The principal object of the invention is to provide a rotary-drum-typewindrowing attachment with which, in a careful way, both a singlecomparatively large swath or windrow can be formed from a previouslymown crop as well as several comparatively smaller swaths or windrowsparallel to each other and which is convertible between these twoworking configurations with comparatively few, simple handmanipulations.

It is an object of my invention, therefore to provide an improved rotarydrum windrower for a tractor.

It is also an object of my invention to provide an improved rotary drumwindrowing implement for a tractor with a more versatile constructionthan earlier swath-forming machines and which obviates drawbacksthereof.

Another object of this invention is to extend the principles of theabovementioned application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

These objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter areattained in accordance with my invention in a windrower or teddercomprising a transverse support attached by a towing bar to a tractorand oriented at an acute angle to the travel direction of the rotarydrum windrowing attachment and a plurality of crop-transfer drum, whichare mounted parallel to each other under the transverse support and arerotatable on it, so that they are offset from each other in the traveldirection and their work zones overlap. These drum can be of the typeprovided in Swiss Pat. No. 499,254 or French patent publication No.2,537,578.

According to the invention at least one of the crop-transfer drums isswingable substantially through 180° around the upright axis about whicha neighboring crop-transfer drum is rotated, while the angle of the axisof the crop-transfer drum which is swung with respect to the ground ismaintained substantially unchanged.

Thus the crop-transfer drums of this invention can be put into at leasttwo configurations: one in which the crop-transfer drums are lined upside-by-side below the transverse support positioned comparativelyclosely to each other so that they produce one comparatively large swathor windrow, and another configuration in which one of the crop-transferdrums is pivoted from between two adjacent crop-transfer drums to form agap substantially equal in width to the diameter of a crop-transfer drumso that the crop-transfer drums produce two smaller swaths or windrows.Similarly other crop-transfer drums may be pivotable and a plurality ofsmaller swaths or windrows may be formed.

According to a preferred embodiment of my invention a first, second,third and fourth crop-transfer drums are employed. All of thecrop-transfer drums are driven rotatably in the same rotationaldirection. The fourth crop-transfer drum is positioned furthest to therear in the travel direction of the rotary crop-transfer attachment andthe third crop-transfer drum is positioned next to the fourthcrop-transfer drum. The second crop-transfer drum is pivotable about thefirst crop-transfer drum from a position between the first and thirdcrop-transfer drums so as to form a gap between the first and thirdcrop-transfer drums.

In another embodiment of my invention as above a first, second, thirdand fourth crop-transfer drum are used and all the crop-transfer drumsare rotated in the same rotational direction. The first crop-transferdrum is positioned furthest forward of all the crop-transfer drums inthe travel direction of the windrower, the second crop-transfer drum ispositioned adjacent the first crop-transfer drum, and the thirdcrop-transfer drum is pivotable about the fourth crop-transfer drum fromand to a position between and adjadent the second and fourthcrop-transfer drums so as to form a gap between the second and fourthcrop-transfer drums.

In yet another embodiment of my invention a first, second, third,fourth, fifth, and sixth crop-transfer drum are positioned side-by-sideunder the transverse support and the third crop-transfer drum ispositioned next to the fourth crop-transfer drum, and the secondcrop-transfer drum is pivotable around said first crop-transfer drumfrom and to a position between the first crop-transfer drum and thethird crop-transfer drum and the fifth crop-transfer drum is pivotableabout the sixth crop-transfer drum from and to a position between thefourth and sixth crop-transfer drums, so that two gaps between thecrop-transfer drums and correspondingly two swaths or windrows can beformed.

Further features of my invention include an auxiliary support underwhich the forward most pair of crop-transfer drums in the traveldirection of the windrower are rotatably mounted. This auxiliary supportis generally lower than the transverse support but parallel to it and isconveniently pivoted about the rotation axis of the crop-transfer drumadjacent this forwardmost pair of crop-transfer drums.

In the configuration in which only one comparatively large swath isformed, this forwardmost pair of crop-transfer drums mounted lower thanthose mounted on the transverse support directly is adjacent a smalleramount of crop or grass cutting, while the higher crop-transfer drumsare adjacent the comparatively greater volume of crop or grass cuttings.Adjacent the rear most crop-transfer drum in the travel direction of thewindrower a vertical swath board is mounted and spaced therefrom, whichdoes not need to be detached for shifting to the configuration in whichtwo smaller swaths are formed or its reverse.

Further, of course, when more than four crop-transfer drums areutilized, two auxiliary supports employing two crop-transfer drums canbe positioned at each end of the transverse support pivotally. Theseauxiliary supports provide a convenient means to pivot the pivotablecrop-transfer drums.

Further advantageously all of the crop-transfer drums of my inventionare advantageously driven rotatably by a V-belt drive, and the directionof rotation of the crop-transfer drums which pivot remains unchanged onpivoting. The V-belt drive of course may derive power from the tractordrive.

It is especially desirable to incline the vertical axes of thecorp-transfer drums at a sufficiently acute angle to the ground so thatthe lower front edges of the crop-transfer drums in the travel directionof the windrower touch the ground.

It is particularly advantageous that under at least every secondcrop-transfer drum a centrally oriented wheel (see French patentpublication No. 2,539,578) is provided, so that after pivoting one ofthe crop-transfer drums having the wheel thereunder has the same spacingfrom the ground as before pivoting.

Furthermore the spacing between the swath board and the lastcrop-transfer in the travel direction of the windrower is advantageouslyadjustable.

With my invention the advantage is attained that with few handmanipulations, that is, by a single swing of the auxiliary support aboutits rotation axis, windrower is changed to a configuration in whichserveral smaller swaths or windrows parallel to each other can beformed. Thus an enlargement of the operating surface of the windrower isalso provided by pivoting its pivotable crop-transfer drums.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The above and other objects, features and advantages of my inventionwill become more readily apparent from the following description,reference being made to the accompanying highly diagrammatic drawing inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a schematic rear view of a preferred embodiment of a windroweraccording to my invention having four crop-transfer drums seen in aconfiguration in which two swaths or windrows are produced;

FIGS. 1A and 1B are perspective views of two drums which can be used inthis embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of the apparatus according to FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic top action view of the apparatus according to theembodiment of FIG. 1 showing the four crop-transfer drums in aconfiguration in which one comparatively large swath or windrow isproduced, and showing the pivoting crop-transfer wheel in broken lines;

FIG. 4 is a schematic rear view of another embodiment of a windroweraccording to my invention also having four crop-transfer drums;

FIG. 5 is a schematic top view of the apparatus according to FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a schematic rear view of yet another embodiemnt of a windroweraccording to my invention having six crop-transfer drums; and

FIG. 7 is a schematic top view of the apparatus according to FIG. 6.

SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION

A windrower with four crop-transfer drums 10, 11, 12 and 13 is shown inFIGS. 1 and 2 being pulled by a tractor 1 not shown in complete detail.The windrower has a towing bar 3 by which it is attached to a hitchassembly 2 of the tractor 1. On the towing bar 3 generally oriented inthe direction of travel of the windrower, a transverse support 4oriented at a fixed acute angle to the travel direction of the windroweris attached in a horizontal plane, under which in the preferredembodiment four crop-transfer drums 10, 11, 12, and 13 are rotatablyattached so as to extend to the ground. The drums can be smooth surfacedor provided with crop engaging formations as described in theaforementioned French or Swiss patent publications.

On a rotating power take-off shaft 5 of the tractor 1 is a rotationalcoupling to an angle drive (bevel-gear drive) 7 positioned on atransverse support 4. The angle drive 7 drives a V-belt drive 8, whichjointly drives the crop-transfer drums 10, 11, 12, and 13 in the samedirection of rotation as indicated by the arrows in FIG. 2.

By the transverse support 4 positioned at an angle to the traveldirection of the windrower and the crop-transfer drums 10, 11, 12 and 13arranged as shown in FIG. 3 directly next to each other side-by-sideunder transverse support 4 spaced from each other a distance muchsmaller than the diameter of a crop-transfer drum with their work zonesoverlapping, the crop or hay formed in a swath by the firstcrop-transfer drum 10, that is, the drum furthest forward in the traveldirection in this configuration, and by all the adjacent crop-transferdrums 11, 12, and 13, is conveyed to the rear most crop-transfer drum 13beside which it is formed into a swath or windrow 25. For better swathor windrow formation a swath board 9 can be provided adjacent the finalcrop-transfer drum 13, which is positioned with variable clearance fromthe outer circumference of the final crop-transfer drum 13.

In the configuration shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 instead of a single largeswath or windrow, smaller swaths 24 and 25 formed parallel to each otherare formed. Thus as shown in the FIGS. 1 and 3 the second crop-transferdrum 11 is swung around the first crop-transfer drum 10 about the axis17 of the first crop-transfer drum 10, that is, the crop-transfer drumfurthest forward in the direction of the windrower. All crop-transferdrums 10, 11, 12 and 13 including the axis 51 of the pivotablecrop-transfer drum 11 maintain the inclination of their axes of rotationto the ground constant both before and after shifting from oneconfiguration to the other. The shifting between the configuration ofcrop-transfer drums is particularly well shown in broken lines in FIG.3, where one sees that a gap of a width substantially equal to the widthof the pivotable second rotary mower 11 arises between the originalfirst crop-transfer drum 10 and the third crop-transfer drum 12 so thatparallel to the original swath or windrow 25, a second swath or windrow24 is found lying parallel to it.

The axes of the crop-transfer drums 10, 11, 12, and 13 are inclined atan acute angle a to the ground (FIG. 1A). Thus the crop-transfer drums10, 11, 12 and 13 are preferably tipped with their rear edges 40, 41,42, and 43 tipped up and their front edges (11a) in the travel directionare inclined downward to touch the ground.

In order to be able to pivot the second crop-transfer drum 11 along asemicircle around the first crop-transfer drum 10, both thesecrop-transfer drums 10 and 11 are connected by an auxiliary support 16positioned below and parallel to transverse support 4, whose pivot jointhappens to be coincident with the axis 17 of the first crop-transferdrum 10. Both first and second crop-transfer drums 10 and 11 areattached lower than both crop-transfer drums 12 and 13 so that in theconfiguration of FIG. 3 in which a single large swath 15 is formed, thatis, with the second crop-transfer drum 11 not pivoted around firstcrop-transfer drum 10 to form the aforementioned gap, both crop-transferdrums 10 and 11 work in the vicinity of a reduced amount of crop orcuttings, in contrast to the third and fourth crop-transfer drums 12 and13 which work in the vicinity of larger amounts of crop or cuttings.

Another embodiment of my invention is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 having fourcrop-transfer drums 10', 11', 12' and 13'. In this embodiment the thirdcrop-transfer drum 12' is pivotable around the fourth crop-transfer drum13' instead of the second crop-transfer drum 11' around the firstcrop-transfer drum 10' as in the above embodiment. Here the swath board9 can still be positioned parallel to the travel direction of thewindrower oriented vertically and attached to and supported by thetransverse support 4. Only the configuration of the crop-transfer drums10', 11', 12' and 13' from which two parallel swaths are formed is shownin FIGS. 4 and 5. As in the previous embodiment the crop-transfer drums10', 11', 12' and 13' can be inclined at an acute angle to the groundslightly different from 90° so that the front edges of the crop-transferdrums 10', 11', 12', and 13 touch the ground.

A third embodiment of my windrower is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 having sixcrop-transfer drums 10", 11", 12", and 13", 14" and 15" attachedrotatably under transverse support 4" and in the case of crop-transferdrum 11" directly under first auxiliary support 16" and in the case ofcrop-transfer drum 14" directly under second auxiliary support 18".First auxiliary support 16" is attached pivotally below and parallel totransverse support 4" and pivots about pivot point 17" whichcoincidently is the axis of rotation of first crop-transfer drum 10".Second auxiliary support 18" is attached pivotally below and parallel totransverse support 4" at the end opposite to the end that firstauxiliary support 16" is attached. Second auxiliary support 18" pivotson pivot point 19" which is also coincidently the axis of rotation ofthe sixth crop-transfer drum 15". Thus in this embodiment both thesecond and the fifth crop-transfer drums 11" and 14" pivot around thefirst and the sixth crop-transfer drums 10" and 15" to form threeconfigurations having no gap, one gap and two gaps so that in thisembodiment one comparatively large swath, two smaller swaths or threeeven smaller parallel swaths or windrows 26", 27", and 28" can be formedat will.

Under every crop-transfer drum shown in the drawings or at least underevery second crop-transfer drum a centrally located wheel 32' in FIG. 4and 32 in FIG. 6 is provided (although not shown in the drawing), sothat after swinging a pivotable crop-transfer drum 180° about the axisof the adjacent crop-transfer drum, the wheel is again oriented parallelto the travel direction of the windrower. Thus of couse the wheels 32and 32' function to make the travel of the windrower easier and tomaintain the distance between the lower edge of the crop-transfer drumsand the ground. The wheel 32 is seen in FIG. 1B wherein a portion of acrop-transfer drum has been broken away.

I claim:
 1. In a windrower for forming mown crop material into a swathand adapted to be drawn by a tractor, comprising a transverse supportattached to said tractor by a towing bar orientable at an acute angle toa travel direction of said windrower, a plurality of crop-transfer drumsattached under said transverse support parallel to each other so as toeach be rotatable, said rotary crop-transfer drums being offset fromeach other in said travel direction of said windrower, the work zones ofsaid rotary crop-transfer drums overlapping, the improvement whichcomprises means for swinging at least one of said crop-transfer drumsthrough substantially 180° around an upright axis of a neighboringcrop-transfer drum with the angle of an axis of the swingablecrop-transfer drum with respect to the ground maintained unchanged. 2.The improvement according to claim 1 wherein said plurality of saidcrop-transfer drums comprises a first crop-transfer drum, a secondcrop-transfer drum, a third crop-transfer drum, a fourth crop-transferdrum positioned next to one another, all of said crop-transfer drumsbeing rotated in the same rotational direction, said fourthcrop-transfer drum being positioned furthest of said plurality ofcrop-transfer drums to the rear in said travel direction of saidwindrower, said third crop-transfer drum being positioned adjacent saidfourth crop-transfer drum, said second crop-transfer drum beingpivotable about said first crop-transfer drum from a position betweenand adjacent said first and third crop-transfer drums so as to form agap between said first and third crop-transfer drums whose width issubstantially equal to the diameter of said second crop-transfer drum.3. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein said plurality ofcrop-transfer drums comprises a first crop-transfer drum, a secondcrop-transfer drum, a third crop-transfer drum, and a fourthcrop-transfer drum, positioned next to each other, all of saidcrop-transfer drums being rotated in the same rotational direction, saidfirst crop-transfer drum being positioned furthest forward of saidplurality of said crop-transfer drums in said travel direction of saidwindrower, said second crop-transfer drum being positioned adjacent saidfirst crop-transfer drum, said third crop-transfer drum being swingableabout said fourth crop-transfer drum from a position between andadjacent said second and fourth crop-transfer drums so as to form a gapbetween said second and fourth crop-transfer drums whose width issubstantially equal to the diameter of said third crop-transfer drum. 4.The improvement according to claim 1 wherein said plurality of saidcrop-transfer drums comprises a first crop-transfer drum, a secondcrop-transfer drum, a third crop-transfer drum, a fourth crop-transferdrum, a fifth crop-transfer drum, and a sixth crop-transfer drum, saidthird crop-transfer drum being positioned next to said fourthcrop-transfer drum, said second crop-transfer drum being swingable aboutsaid first crop-transfer drum from and to a position between said firstcrop-transfer drum and said third crop-transfer drum said fifthcrop-transfer drum being pivotable about said sixth crop-transfer drumfrom and to a position between said fourth and said sixth crop-transferdrums to form a gap whose width is equal substantially to the diameterof said fifth crop-transfer drum, and to form a gap whose width issubstantially equal to the diameter of said second crop-transfer drum.5. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein said plurality is fourand a forwardmost pair of said crop-transfer drums in said traveldirection of windrower is positioned lower than a rear pair of saidcrop-transfer drums, said forwardmost pair of said crop-transfer drumsbeing attached rotatably under an auxiliary support orientable parallelto said transverse support.
 6. The improvement according to claim 5wherein said auxiliary support is pivotable about said upright axisabout which said adjacent one of said forwardmost pair of saidcrop-transfer drums is swung together with the other one of saidforwardmost pair of said crop transfer drums substantially 180° in ahorizontal plane.
 7. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein all ofsaid crop-transfer drums are set in rotation by a V-belt drive and thedirection of rotation of the crop-transfer drum that is swung remainsunchanged after pivoting.
 8. The improvement according to claim 1wherein the axes of said crop-transfer drums are inclined at acuteangles to the ground so that the lower front edges of said crop-transferdrums in said travel direction of said windrower touches said ground. 9.The improvement according to claim 1 wherein adjacent the rearmostcrop-transfer drum in said travel direction of said windrower, avertically oriented swath board extending parallel to said traveldirection is positioned, the spacing of which from said rearmostcrop-transfer drum is adjustable.
 10. The improvement according to claim1 wherein under at least every second crop-transfer drum a centrallyoriented wheel is provided, so that after pivoting one of saidcrop-transfer drums having said wheel the clearance of saidcrop-transfer drum from said ground remains the same as said clearanceprior to pivoting.